Chapter 8: Open Up
True Remnant: Beacon
Azure
Several months had passed since she'd begun her watch of Gamma Site's sarcophagus chamber, the hole leading into the Labyrinthus sitting calmly in the center. Just a few weeks ago she'd chosen her own name, with Lady Garnet's permission of course; Azure. Her orange visor displayed various mathematical equations that she solved one by one. They served no purpose for her, say to pass the time. She had nothing better to do. The beautiful thing about numbers was that there was an infinite way to process them. She'd solve one equation, create a random algorithm, and start anew. She averaged about thirty equations every five minutes, since she was pacing herself.
She was in the middle of solving one such equation when her sensors started to beep. One large, flashing notification popped up in her field of view; INCOMING SIGNAL.
Sister Unit Lambda must be arriving, she concluded with a smile. The visor lifted so that the arriving party might gaze upon her beautiful eyes, and she poised herself into a welcoming posture. The tear in reality began to pulse and fluctuate before it exploded in a wave of rainbow light, enveloping the room in its glory. When it faded, the tear itself had vanished. In its place stood Penny, Rose, and a white haired human woman; Azure's files recognized the woman as Weiss Schnee, causing her to smile reflexively.
Weiss was being held by Penny, and Rose's face seemed surprised at the sight of the two friends in their seemingly hostile embrace. The heiress broke away violently, turned to Penny and pointed Myrtenaster at her throat. "What the fuck do you think you're doing? You're ruining everything!"
"I'm saving you, Weiss! Or would you rather spend all of eternity walking about the Multiverse, forever stuck in your own personal Purgatory!"
Weiss lowered her rapier, rushed towards Penny, and grabbed her by the collar. "You don't get to make that call! I almost had them all! It's the only thing that I've cared about for countless lifetimes! How dare you!"
Penny didn't resist as she stared Weiss in the eyes. She stared curiously into those icy blue orbs, searching them for what was left of Weiss's soul. What she saw was sad, broken, and devoid of all hope. Penny's gaze softened. "I'm sorry I didn't know sooner, Weiss," she said with sadness in her tone. "It's been over forty years since you died here, on this Remnant. If I had known fifty years ago, I would have spared you all this torment."
Weiss scoffed. "Because death by cancer was the way that I should have went?" She spat. "I died slowly here. In agony."
"Cancer treatment has come a long way since 4398. We know what kind of cancer you had, and we know that it was genetic. Let me eliminate the Cycle, and then we can prepare you a proper cancer treatment before it develops. Nidhogg isn't important."
"Nidhogg is everything!" Weiss cried angrily.
Rose jumped between the two of them, shoving them apart. "Enough! Look at the two of you! You're supposed to be friends! Weiss, shouldn't you be happy that we're breaking you free from the Cycle?"
"Not yet. Not until I've killed them all."
"You don't need to anymore, Weiss! Why can't you just-"
"It's a matter of pride, Penny! What would you know? You're just a pile of nuts and bolts!"
Penny was hurt by the statement, and before she could react Rose had already slapped Weiss. "That's enough!" Weiss's left cheek was reddened as she stared daggers into Rose. "If you want to die so badly, I'll be happy to oblige you after we cure you."
"I see the mission was a success!" Azure said with a smile, oblivious to the situation before her. For the first time since they'd arrived, the three women finally noticed the Synthetic guardian. "Lady Garnet will be pleased."
Weiss stared at Azure before turning to Penny. "Friend of yours?"
Penny shook her head. "Who are you?"
"I am called Azure. My Murakumo designation is Gamma-3. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Lambda. I've been waiting for your signal, per Lady Garnet's orders."
Penny's expression went dark. "That stupid, stupid girl."
"What?" Rose asked.
"Garnet found and completed Gamma. I doubt she has full control over it as of now, and I doubt it's had time to fully flesh out its personality if it's been locked up down here waiting for us." She shook her head. "Can you call Garnet here, Gamma?"
"Why didn't you use my name?" Gamma asked.
"You don't know who you are yet, Gamma. Let me speak to Garnet."
Azure stared blankly at Penny, tilting her head in though. "Very well," she said after a time.
Before she could start the call, Ouroboros poked his head from Weiss's shirt. "It's never a dull moment, Witch. I would appreciate it if you slowed the madness down a bit."
Azure saw the serpent and froze in place. Oh no, Penny thought. "Get back!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.
Azure's visor locked into combat position in front of her eyes, and her left arm transformed into a small cannon of sorts. "Unidentified subject detected. Parameters checked...does not match pre-established persons of interest. Mission orders state, 'If anything that isn't Penny, Rose, or Weiss comes through, destroy it.' Combat mode engaged." The cannon began to charge with a bright blue energy.
"Fuck!" Weiss shouted.
"Damn it!" Rose muttered.
The cannon fired.
Garnet
The headmistress of Beacon was calmly patrolling the grounds, sipping lightly from a mug as she moved about the campus. Today is a-
The ground shuddered beneath her feet; a shallow explosion. Some of her students were present and were giving concerned and confused looks.
Not good! She thought. She threw her mug to the ground, shattering it in the process. She reached into her blazer and pulled out a six shot revolver as she darted towards the main clock tower. Hopping into the elevator, she pressed a small red button on the panel; campus wide audio was now turned on.
"All students, this is an emergency! Arm yourself and take up a defensive position around the central clock tower! Prepare for battle!" Mashing the button off, she rode the elevator down the shaft with her pistol, Moulin Rouge, at the ready. "Why now? Why today!?"
Weiss
The dust settled from the explosion; she, Penny, and Rose were all unharmed. Penny had leapt in front of Weiss and shielded her with her blades, and Rose seemed to be casting a magical barrier of sorts. "We're all on the same side, Gamma! Stand down!" Penny shouted.
"Unidentified target still active; resuming combat protocols." She began to charge another salvo of the cannon.
"Not good!"
"Fucking move!" Weiss shouted. "I can take her!"
"I can't risk you dying again, Weiss! I don't want to search for you all over again!"
"Then do something, damn it!"
Penny growled low and angrily, not wanted to do what she knew must be done. Ignoring her feelings, she leapt at Gamma and swung her swords together at the cannon. In a single slicing motion, the cannon flew off from Gamma's elbow, powered down, and landed on the hard floor with a thud. Penny grabbed Gamma by the throat and hoisted her up to restrain her. "I said stand down! Or I'll remove the other one!"
"Primary weapon offline," Gamma said. "Calculating. Calculating. Calculating."
Penny scoffed, throwing the Murakumo to the grown, turning, and walking towards Weiss. Rose lowered her barrier and stared at the broken machine curiously. "What is she doing?"
"Calculating. Calculating. Calculating."
"She's trying to figure out her odds of surviving this encounter, while also completing her mission," Penny said, shaking her head. "Garnet had no idea what she was doing. Gamma isn't complete; she's broken. No one alive can fix her except for Neo and myself."
The elevator outside the room went ding, signalling that someone had arrived. The door into this room was in pieces from the cannon blast as well, so the group saw plainly as Garnet herself climbed over the rubble with her revolver in hand. She saw Penny, Rose, and Weiss. "What happened?!" She asked urgently. "Did something follow you back?"
"We're fine," Weiss said coldly.
Penny glared daggers into Garnet. "What did you do!?"
"What are you..." she saw Azure laying on the ground.
"Calculating. Calculating." She echoed over and over.
"What...what happened?"
"She attacked Weiss!"
"Technically, she attacked Ouroboros," Weiss corrected.
"But I'm attached to you, so she attacked you as well, Witch," the snake said sarcastically.
"I...what? A talking snake?" Garnet asked.
"Long story," Weiss said. "But, your toy seems to be broken."
"Why did you try to finish Gamma?" Penny asked.
Garnet stared at Penny, a mixture of confusion and relief on her face. "I wanted the Murakumo project. The concept alone is beautiful; perfect, programmable soldiers to defend the world! Why wouldn't I try to recreate it?"
"But we're not perfect!" Penny snapped. "James Ironwood almost died because the Lambda Unit went rampant upon activation!" There were tears in Penny's eyes. "Rho-17 killed everyone involved in her construction! We were the only two to ever be activated because we simply could not be trusted!"
"But...but you serve Remnant. You protect us. Why would you-"
"The mistake they made was giving us sentience. We were self aware. Imagine waking up for the first time, and everything floods your mind at once. You'd panic too. We didn't mean to hurt anyone, but it happened out of reflex. We were afraid!"
"That's not the case now! Gamma didn't do that! I programmed her myself!"
"You turned her into a doll with residual emotion. She's not sentient; she's an imitation."
Garnet's eyes went wide. "How could you tell?"
"A complete Murakumo would have stood down, or realized that they'd made an error. Look at her." They turned to face Gamma, who still sat there on the ground.
"Calculating. Calculating. Calculating."
"She's stuck in a loop that she can't break out of," Penny said sadly.
Garnet stood there for several minutes before she approached Gamma, kneeling down to embrace the mechanical girl. "Cancel subroutine," she whispered, activating a command phrase.
"Canceling," Gamma echoed. Her eyes went dark as she experienced a hard reset. When the orange color returned she looked around in a confused state. "What happened?"
"Nothing," Garnet whispered with a shake in her voice and tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Azure."
Gamma smiled. "You used my name!"
"I'm so sorry." The sound of the hammer cocking in her revolver reached Penny's ears; she forced herself to look away.
Bang.
Bits of wiring and metal bounced off of the wall behind Gamma, a large magnum caliber hole exposing her inner workings. The light once again faded from her eyes and she slumped over. Garnet stood up, wiping the tears from her own eyes. She holstered the pistol, bent over, and pried open a compartment on Azure's head, pulling out a hard disk drive. "I guess I messed up, huh?"
"You didn't have to do that," Penny whispered.
"No. I failed her, so I had to." She held up the hard drive. "But she's not dead. I can try again at some point." She pocketed the hard drive before turning to Weiss. "Welcome back, Weiss. It's nice to finally meet the woman that my Great Grandmother loved so dearly."
Weiss was caught off guard. "Great grandmother?"
"Ruby Rose," Garnet explained.
And for the first time in thousands of years, Weiss smiled a real smile.
Song: Open Up - Korn
Author's Note
Bit of a filler chapter, I suppose. I made a mistake and introduced plot lines that I really didn't have a whole lot planned for. This is the 3rd and final piece of the Gamma-3 story line that I introduced way back in chapter one. A bit anti climatic in my opinion. But, it needed to happen.
Not the best chapter, I admit. But, as long as I'm having fun I don't really care.
Fun Fact: I have nothing better to do...so I'm gonna go play Overwatch while drunk!
Till next time!